October 22 (SeeNews) - Serbian food retailer Delta Maxi boosted its turnover by 15% to 57 billion dinars ($916.7 million/611.6 million euro) during the first nine months of 2009, it said on Thursday.
“Our turnover in Serbia totalled 57 billion dinars during the first three quarters, which is a 15% increase compared to the same period last year,” General Manager Dragan Filipovic told a news conference.
Delta Maxi’s turnover in neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania and Bulgaria rose by 17% to 254.3 million euro on the year during the same period, Filipovic told the same news conference.
The company invested 9.5 million euro in sale promotions during the first nine months, Filipovic said, adding that Delta Maxi plans to invest a further 5.5 million euro by the end of 2009 towards the same goal.
The number of shoppers in Serbia grew to 97.3 million during the first nine months of this year from 90.9 million at the end of 2008, Filipovic said. The number of shoppers in Delta Maxi’s stores abroad rose to 23.9 million at the end of September from 19.6 million at the end of December last year.
Delta Maxi, which employs about 15,000 locally and abroad, has opened 17 new stores in Serbia since the beginning of this year and another eight stores in the region, Filipovic said. The company plans to open 10 more stores in Serbia and a further five in the region by the end of the year, he added.
Delta Maxi is part of Delta Holding group owned by Miroslav Miskovic, a Serbian tycoon who emerged in the early 1990s during the rule of ex-Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
(1 euro=93.2048 Serbian dinars)